I have used the personal adds for 3 years now and love them greatly. So long as you take safety measures and understand that for every 5 losers you will meet there is always one that may be who you are looking for.
Trust me though, dont settle on one person, set up multiple dates a week with different people and you will be successful. I have at some times had 4-5 dates a week all with different women.
Some tips:
1. Use e-mail first.
2. Instant Messenger Second. If your feeling good about the person then..
3. Call them, talk to them over a period of time.
4. Make sure... I stress... make SURE you get a current picture with a full body shot. Head shots are NOT cool. Fat chicks love this strategy.
5. If that goes well then agree to meet them in a very public place, my favorite place to meet someone is at Chili's because of the atmosphere.
6. Try your BEST to make sure you get to the meeting place last. Try to scope out a visual, if they are not who they said they were. i.e. with reference to someone who refered to themselves as "Average Size" and you show up and she is the size of a Mack truck, then turn tail and leave.
The best thing you can do is be honest, don't lie on your profile, they will find out and you will be the ass. My personal policy is when I find out that a woman has lied to me about something I break it off immedietly. I have a thing about honesty.
When I first told my friends that I was doing online dating I was met with nothing but hate. Now when they see how many dates I have WITH attractive women they all want to know how to do it.
I am an average looking guy, but I am honest, treat them with respect and they absolutely eat it up.